Game 73: New York 89, Warriors 84

After losing 89-84 to New York in a Sunday matinee before the 75th consecutive sellout crowd at Oracle Arena, the Warriors have a two-game roadie looming that could leave them on the outside of the Western Conference playoff picture.

Klay Thompson trimmed the Warriors’ deficit, which once as large as 12 points, to 85-84 with a three-pointer that snapped his 0-for-7 skid with 1:03 remaining, but Carmelo Anthony made a pair of free throws to give New York an 87-84 advantage with 45.4 seconds left.

The teams traded scoreless possessions, giving the Warriors one last chance to tie it with five seconds on the clock. Stephen Curry (32 points) caught the inbounds pass, but he felt that his three-point attempt would be blocked, so he tried to toss the ball to Draymond Green. Shannon Brown intercepted it to drop the sixth-place Warriors (45-28) to two games ahead of ninth-place Memphis – a day before they leave for a back-to-back set in Dallas and San Antonio.

Maybe the road will spark some urgency in the Warriors, who were playing without power forward David Lee (hamstring) and center Andrew Bogut (pelvic/groin contusion) and continued to drop home games to lesser opponents.

The Knicks (31-43), who had lost three of their past four games, were the Warriors’ seventh atrocious home loss of the season. They also dropped games to sub-.500 teams Charlotte, Cleveland and Denver, .500 Minnesota, up-and-down Washington and San Antonio’s junior-varsity team.

On a day when the Warriors missed Lee for a second consecutive game and head coach Mark Jackson said the power forward “still can’t run” on his strained right hamstring, the team also got less-than-ideal news on Bogut.

An MRI exam revealed no structural damage but a pelvic/groin contusion that Jackson predicted will keep the big man off the court until at least Friday’s game against Sacramento – a week after he was injured by a flying knee to the groin by Memphis center Marc Gasol.

“I’m not really sure. I’d like to have a conversation with him, as far as the pain,” Jackson said when asked if Bogut would go on the roadie through Texas. “The most important thing for us is to get healthy and whole as quickly as possible. Even on the trip, what is he going to do? He’s more than likely not going to play, so we’ll use wisdom and make the right decision.”

The Warriors started Jermaine O’Neal and Marreese Speights in place of Lee and Bogut and inked 29-year-old Hilton Armstrong to a 10-day contract, but everyone in a home uniform had trouble finding continuity against Knicks, who are also playing for their postseason lives.

After grabbing an early 15-6 lead and extending their first-quarter lead to as much as 27-15, the Warriors’ reserves missed 11 of their first 13 field-goal attempts and New York erased the double-digit deficit.

With 7:05 left in the second quarter, Jackson subbed four starters back into the game, but it didn’t make much difference as J.R. Smith and Tim Hardaway Jr. scored the half’s final 15 points and sent the Knicks into the locker room with a 56-44 lead.

The Warriors started 5-of-6 from three-point range before missing their next 13 attempts. Stephen Curry finally snapped the skid with 2:02 remaining in the third quarter, when he connected from long range to trim the deficit to 70-64.

He hit his fifth three-pointer of the night with 9:58 left in the fourth quarter to get the Warriors within 74-72. Curry’s sixth three-pointer, a possession on which New York forgot he was the best shooter in the world, tied it 81-81 with 2:41 on the clock.